Fifth-graders find science can be a blast

Nicholas FilipasRecord Staff Writer

Friday

Sep 18, 2015 at 7:31 PMSep 18, 2015 at 7:31 PM

STOCKTON — As scores of Stockton Unified school buses arrived at the San Joaquin County Office of Education with 850 fifth-graders for the annual Science Blast event, the goal for many organizers is for a light to go off in the next generation of scientists, engineers and astronauts.

“The object is to nurture them to different types of sciences and expand their minds to a bigger world out there and all the marvels to discover,” Reaching for the Stars Foundation President David Varela said.

Science Blast, now in its sixth year, welcomed students to a fun and educational experience at multiple sites throughout the Office of Education campus on Friday. In partnership with the Jose M. Hernández Reaching for the Stars Foundation, more than 6,500 students have taken part in the hands-on science lessons.

From station to station, students took part in a packed morning of topics, including the stars, making paper rockets, learning about sundials and other STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) activities.

Toan Pham’s fifth-grade class from Rio Calaveras Elementary built its own handheld paper rockets from a drinking straw, Scotch tape and pencils. Some of the class made their rockets with fins and some without, seeing the difference in thrust force by how far their rockets would travel after blowing into the straw.

“In science, you always want to change one variable, so we’re testing stability and we’re seeing if fins really play a role in rocket stability, which they do,” said Nancy Flocchini Stenzler, project consultant of the Science and STEM Integration at the county Office of Education.

Kim Odenweller, a volunteer and retired fourth-grade teacher, said the whole point is to make science fun and get the subject into the classroom easier. Like Joseph Barranco, 10, who was all smiles after his paper rocket darted a few feet farther than a few other classmates.

“I want to get science in the classroom. These are kids that are going to be here in 50 years — I won’t be — but they will, so we've got to train them,” Odenweller said.

“Maybe they’ll figure out how to clean up the oceans, or not have any more toxic rain, or something I’m not even thinking about at this time. I’m waiting for the ‘Beam me up, Scotty’ business.”

In the Ventureland building, volunteers Lissa Gilmore and Jesus Margarito gave a tour of the stars and planets to plenty of “oohs” and “ahhs" from Gabriella Gonzales’ class from Fremont Elementary in the popular STARLAB exhibit.

Standing 10 feet high and 16 feet in diameter, at the cost of $50,000, inside the dome is a digital projection of the heavens being displayed, giving Gilmore and Maragario the control with a the click of a remote to see Mars, Venus, Jupiter and how ancient Greece used the star formations to create myths.

Maybe one of the students who visited the STARLAB might turn out just like Hernández. A Stockton native, Franklin High and Pacific graduate and former NASA astronaut, he spent 13 days in orbit in 2009 and was the first person to tweet from space in Spanish.

Hernández was 10 years old when he witnessed the last Apollo mission into orbit, and that moment, he said, inspired him to become an astronaut.

“The fact that it’s Stockton kids that are growing up under the same environment where I grew up and it’s very important to them, that not only shows them role models who look like them, but role models that came from the community, under the same conditions,” he said.

“For them to say ‘Hey, this person is real, I can touch them, hug them, ask for his autograph, but he’s from Stockton. And he’s an astronaut, maybe I can be an astronaut. Maybe I can be something.’ ”

When he and his Discovery crew blasted off in August 2009 from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Hernández was part of a mission to the International Space Station. As flight engineer and Mission Specialist 2, Hernández assisted the commander and pilot during the flight, suiting up astronauts for spacewalks and operating the robotic arm that transported delivery loads to the space station.

The challenge now he said is getting young minds to walk away with a license to dream big.

“Anything is possible. I’m living proof of that and that’s what I’m trying to basically relate to kids,” Hernández said. “Work hard for it, study and anything is possible. It’s a very simple recipe that works.”

At University of the Pacific, the public is welcomed to learn and explore in the Science Blast Community Day today from 9 a.m. to noon at DeRosa University Center. Demonstrations include a satellite from NASA Ames Research Center and JP Aerospace will build a Pongsat satellite.